Berlin-based big data startup Yukka has been acquired by Neunorm Verwaltungs GmbH, a private equity company, in an undisclosed deal. Yukka – which was founded in April 2009 – has developed big data analysis tool GreenBox and its offshoot application SentiTrade, a platform which interprets the psychology of financial markets.
Neunorm is already a majority shareholder of Zurich-based finatris, an investment advisory firm for banks, pension funds and family offices (i.e. family investors) which was one of the first users of SentiTrade.
The SentiTrade software interprets tonality in financial news, meaning investors can use it to obtain an up-to-date overview of how people in the market are thinking – specifically, to either warn of excessive optimism or suggest opportunities created by exaggerated pessimism.
It manages this by analysing aggregated information from a series of validated financial news sources and determining whether it is positive of negative. By calculating the ratio of positive to negative, SentiTrade can convert market sentiment into specific numbers.
SentiTrade is the first financial application for GreenBox, a big data analysis engine which can sort and categorise databanks of information such as emails, intellectual property records or social media content.
Yukka, currently a GmbH, will be transformed into a joint stock company, known in Germany as an AG, which its founders said will enable it to expand further. “Yukka [has] spent the last five years developing and positioning SentiTrade as a bull bear index in the investment community,” said CEO Kristoffer J. Lassen, who also told Silicon Allee that the acquisition will allow for both the team and the range of services to be expanded, including applying GreenBox to other sectors such as media monitoring and business intelligence. It will also see Yukka benefit from the network of its new owners.